via Watts Up With That?

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May 13, 2024 at 08:03AM

By Paul Homewood

Meanwhile Wales Online inform us that a new solar farm will power 100,000 homes:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/wales-biggest-ever-solar-farm-planned-to-power-100-000-homes/ar-BB1m5p0i

Maybe somebody ought to explain to those 100,000 homeowners that they will only have electricity for a few hours a day in summer, not even that in winter.

If it goes ahead, the project will receive over £150 million in subsidies, based on current prices. That’s £1500 for each of those lucky homeowners.

No wonder NextEnergy are keen to get to get involved.

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

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May 13, 2024 at 06:43AM

By Paul Homewood

I wonder whose bright idea that was?

https://twitter.com/OzaNandini/status/1777941616562733520

The concept of floating solar power is taking on water after a storm knocked a new Indian project offline only a few days after it began operations.

What has been described as the world’s largest floating solar plant at Omkareshwar Dam was badly damaged when a storm hit in mid-April.

Narmada Hydroelectric Development Corporation said the plant will be back in operation soon, but no firm date was announced, according to the Times of India.

The damaged floating plant is one of three developed near the dam. The storm that damaged it had winds reported at 50 kph, which is just over 31 mph.

Those winds are actually relatively tame. According to the National Weather Service, “extreme” wind threats feature winds approximately ranging from 74 mph to 95 mph. In fact, the NWS actually doesn’t consider winds under 39 mph to be of much threat, at all.

https://ijr.com/storm-ravages-worlds-largest-floating-solar-plant-takes-offline-days-launch/

The idea that this is repairable seems ludicrous, as the panels themselves must surely be badly damaged.

And even if it is, what is the point when a a bit of wind knocks it for six again?

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

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May 13, 2024 at 06:23AM

This report summary says ‘Vapour trails conundrum resurfaces’. Cloud formation plays an uncertain part in the debate, for example. An experiment using AI found that real time route selection could play a part in reducing the supposed ’emissions’ problem. Proposed financial penalties for airlines are inevitably resisted, but they’re up against net zero climate obsession.
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Airlines are usually rather good at presenting a united face to the world, particularly when it comes to lobbying global policymakers, says The Telegraph.

But a recent move by the EU to clampdown on so-called contrails, the vapour that spews from an aircraft’s jet engines in a thin cloud-like formation, has set carriers at each other’s throats.

The International Air Transport Association (Iata), which counts most of the world’s flag-carriers among its members, has lobbied Brussels to limit the mandatory monitoring of contrails to only flights within the bloc, in an effort to ease the burden of data collection.

But it has stoked the ire of low-cost operators including EasyJet and Ryanair.

The two carriers, which get almost all of their revenue from intra-European services, argue that it would be perverse to ignore contrails produced by long-haul flights when the rule comes in next year.

“Unless the full global scope of monitoring is retained, the science will be incomplete and the places in which contrails are estimated to be most abundant will be excluded,” says David Morgan, chief operating officer at EasyJet.

The clash speaks to concerns that financial penalties or requirements for jets to follow diversionary routes may be focused on those regions where data gathering takes place.

The EU’s CO2 emissions trading scheme is itself confined to flights within the European Economic Area after pushback from overseas carriers.

However, the public row between airlines has distracted from more fundamental questions about just how much contrails affect global temperatures in the first place.

While carriers worldwide have pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, they are far less accepting of potential measures for reducing the production of contrails.

That stance is based partly on a unique property of the vapour trails. While scientists find that they contribute to global warming by aiding the formation of high-altitude clouds that stop heat from escaping the atmosphere, they have other benefits.

Under certain conditions they can equally reflect solar energy back into space, preventing it from reaching the surface and helping to cool the planet.

Iata cites research suggesting that, on average, 14pc of flights leave contrails, of which close to 30pc may have a cooling effect.
. . .
The EU’s stance is particularly important because the bulk of contrails are found in Europe and the US, and along the North Atlantic flyway between them, a “goldilocks zone” where the temperate climate coincides with some of the world’s busiest skies.

The supercooled air pockets that give birth to contrails are generally at too high an altitude in tropical areas and too low at the poles for aircraft to encounter them, while the temperate areas of the southern hemisphere are comparatively lacking in flights.

Full article here.
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Image: Boeing 767 flight deck [credit: Continental Airlines]

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May 13, 2024 at 04:59AM